Jonesboro mayoral candidates tackle issues at debate

Editor’s note: A link to a video replay of the Jonesboro mayor debate can be accessed here. 

The six candidates who hope to be Jonesboro’s next mayor agree city employees deserve pay raises, but none gave a detailed plan on how to pay for them during a live debate Tuesday night at the Jonesboro High School campus. Mayor Harold Perrin and his five challengers – Nathan Coleman, Harold Copenhaver, Amanda Dunavant, Tom Elwood, and John Street – battled this question and others on the debate stage.

Cuts in services or other budget line items might be the result if a way to pay for these increases isn’t formulated, Perrin said.

“We’re going to have to cut other places … state law requires us to have a balanced budget,” he said.

Copenhaver fired a veiled shot at Perrin and city council members who approved the police pay increase. He said he supports the increase, but no plan to fund it has been presented to the public, and he said it’s “concerning.”

Street supports the pay raises even if it means cuts in other areas. Jonesboro has grown a lot in recent years, and crime rates have steadily climbed. Public safety has to be a top priority, he said.

Coleman, who was on the committee to improve police pay, said retraining officers costs the city more than the pay raises do. Dunavant agreed. Earlier this year, the city learned its employees make about 6% less than employees in other cities of comparable size in the state.

“It doesn’t make business sense to not pay them a fair salary,” she said.

Elwood was confused as to how the employee salary problem got to this point, he said. He also fired a mild shot at Perrin and the council saying there are “leadership issues” in the city.

City employee pay hikes have been a white-hot topic in the city in recent months. About $2.4 million worth of pay increases this year alone have been bandied by elected officials, a nearly 7% increase in the budget, according to the city. The amount will grow substantially in the coming years, according to estimates.

Police officers received a pay increase in September and aldermen are now considering higher wages for firefighters and non-uniformed city employees.

Copenhaver took it a step further, saying if he’s elected he will be more “transparent” and the days of “back room dealing” are over. Perrin took exception to the attack line.

“I have had an open and transparent office since I’ve been in office,” he said.

The debate forum was sponsored by KAIT-TV and moderated by Talk Business & Politics’ Roby Brock.

For many years, Jonesboro has been in desperate need of a convention center. In the near future, it will have two with accompanying hotels. One will be built by the O’Reilly Hospitality Management of Springfield, Mo. on the Arkansas State University campus, and the other will be built by CFK Hospitality near the city’s hotel row adjacent to I-555.

Perrin has publicly supported the CFK project and the city’s A&P Commission voted to give it tax incentives. The other project has not received city benefits. Perrin said it will be difficult for both to survive.

Coleman said he thinks both convention centers, slated to open in 2018, can thrive in the city. Dunavant hopes both will be profitable, but it’s unlikely. Street said he thinks it’s possible the city can support both and he added that having two projects was a good problem.

Copenhaver said he would be open to supporting both, but he seemed more intrigued with the O’Reilly project. Elwood agreed with Copenhaver about the convention center on the ASU campus. He added that taxpayers shouldn’t incentivize either proposal.

“I don’t think the city needs to be in the convention business,” Elwood said.

Jonesboro suffers from chronic drainage and street congestion issues. To solve these problems, it will take hundreds of millions of dollars, according to city estimates.

The drainage problems are so bad that a child nearly died in a drainage ditch earlier this year after heavy floods inundated the city and overwhelmed the drainage system, Coleman said. Dunavant noted there are many sections in the city with little or no drainage at all.

Perrin and Street both touted a $90 million federal grant to work on streets during the next several years. Copenhaver said he would organize an internship program with the ASU Engineering Department and the city would use their expertise to help solve these problems.

Elwood said the city’s main problem is that its retaining ponds are not properly constructed and the drainage ditches are not correctly maintenanced. These simple changes would have a huge impact on the drainage problem and would cost far less to implement, he said.

A replay of the debate can be viewed here.